About Unofficial Translations and the New ESO Patch

FabresFour · October 26

Hey everyone, I understand that most of you here are players of ESO in English and other official languages, but I would like to inform you that there is a community of players who use unofficial languages in ESO and utilize translation tools through in-game addons. The game is not obligated to support these translations; however, the number of players is quite high.

For the Brazilian translation alone, the average downloads are around 5-10,000 monthly!

So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s the upcoming patch.

In the next patch, ESO has added a new internal language-switching system within the game, and don’t get me wrong: this is GREAT. However, it is causing a concerning bug for unofficial translations. Whenever a loading screen occurs, the game changes its language to the official language—and this nearly completely undermines any existing translation project.

Apparently, this is related to the UserSettings.txt in the upcoming patch, which creates a new file every time a loading screen happens.

I’m particularly worried because thousands of people will lose the ability to play The Elder Scrolls Online in their native languages. This could significantly impact the number of ESO players.

If there are any ideas or solutions, please share them with us. We can't let so many people lose access to the game we love so much!

Tandor · October 26

Are the addon authors aware of this, and have they tried to update their addons on the PTS but found they can't get round the problem?

@ZOS_Kevin Is anyone in the team aware of this?

FabresFour · October 26

Tandor wrote: »

Are the addon authors aware of this, and have they tried to update their addons on the PTS but found they can't get round the problem?

@ZOS_Kevin Is anyone in the team aware of this?

I am part of the Brazilian team, I informed the Italian team, and the Polish team was already aware of this.

Aaaand we also informed our Community Manager today; the Polish CM was notified earlier. But I thought it would be a good idea to mention this here in the forum as well. The more people who know about this, the more ideas for solutions we can generate.

TaSheen · October 26

Why on earth do we need a UserSettings.txt update at every loading screen? @ZOS_Kevin - can you speak to not only what's asked above, but to this particular piece of idiocy?

[Hmm. I wonder.... if this is a bludgeon attempt to prevent people from "fixing" the "Energy Sustainability Measures" so we won't be able to keep them disabled. If so.... well, I'm not going to put up with that....]

GeneralEU · October 26

A message from the Scribes of Tamriel (Skrybowie Tamriel), the group dedicated to translating this game into Polish:

We're passionate about our work, and we appreciate our fans who want to experience this game in Polish. Our translation add-on is often one of the reasons why they choose this game.

We prioritize quality and immersion, which our fans appreciate as shown by nearly 200,000 downloads of our add-on. Our project is translated manually with careful attention to consistency with the original, and currently we have translated 73.5% of the content.

A bug that appeared on the PTS will prevent many players who are not proficient in English from playing if it's not fixed and appears on the live server this Monday. This may lead to a decline in the number of active players and diminish the Tamriel community.

UserSettings.txt bug:
With the unofficial translation enabled, every time the UI is reloaded (changing location, exiting the game), the game renames the UserSettings.txt file, creating a new file that causes the game to revert to the default English version. Even if you first set another official language, such as French, the game still reverts to English after each loading screen.

We request a prompt and proper intervention to fix this bug.

kaioruschellub17_ESO · October 26

I hope something is done, I play ESO myself using the PT-BR translation

Stafford197 · October 26

Wow this is not okay, can we have this change mentioned in the patch notes instead of put in thinking no one would notice?? Tell us what your thought process was with this one @ZOS_Kevin

TaSheen wrote: »

Why on earth do we need a UserSettings.txt update at every loading screen? @ZOS_Kevin - can you speak to not only what's asked above, but to this particular piece of idiocy?

[Hmm. I wonder.... if this is a bludgeon attempt to prevent people from "fixing" the "Energy Sustainability Measures" so we won't be able to keep them disabled. If so.... well, I'm not going to put up with that....]

On the topic of the sustainability changes, if this is really the intention, then clearly they have zero intention of ever letting us Enable/Disable it via settings like everyone has asked for.

TaSheen · October 26

Stafford197 wrote: »

Wow this is not okay, can we have this change mentioned in the patch notes instead of put in thinking no one would notice?? Tell us what your thought process was with this one @ZOS_Kevin

TaSheen wrote: »

Why on earth do we need a UserSettings.txt update at every loading screen? @ZOS_Kevin - can you speak to not only what's asked above, but to this particular piece of idiocy?

[Hmm. I wonder.... if this is a bludgeon attempt to prevent people from "fixing" the "Energy Sustainability Measures" so we won't be able to keep them disabled. If so.... well, I'm not going to put up with that....]

On the topic of the sustainability changes, if this is really the intention, then clearly they have zero intention of ever letting us Enable/Disable it via settings like everyone has asked for.

Yeah. That was my thinking.

GoAvs34 · October 27

Testing on the pts to see if some common custom changes to the usersettings.txt file would be reset when zoning or reloading ui.

These settings were changed from their base vaules and did NOT change after doing those things:

EnergySustainabilityMeasuresEnabled
SkipPregameVideos
MinFrameTime.2
MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS

So unless I was not triggering the usersettings file to be recreated it seems like this issue will not also change other usersettings cusomizations. Hopefully the translation addon issues can be sorted out though!

TaSheen · October 27

GoAvs34 wrote: »

Testing on the pts to see if some common custom changes to the usersettings.txt file would be reset when zoning or reloading ui.

These settings were changed from their base vaules and did NOT change after doing those things:

EnergySustainabilityMeasuresEnabled
SkipPregameVideos
MinFrameTime.2
MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS

So unless I was not triggering the usersettings file to be recreated it seems like this issue will not also change other usersettings cusomizations. Hopefully the translation addon issues can be sorted out though!

Thank you for testing. I don't have the data allowance to download PTS, so never can really test things. I hope this remains.... and I certainly hope they can fix the issues with the unofficial and official translations! Seems like they don't have much time though?

Elsonso · October 27

TaSheen wrote: »

Why on earth do we need a UserSettings.txt update at every loading screen? @ZOS_Kevin - can you speak to not only what's asked above, but to this particular piece of idiocy?

[Hmm. I wonder.... if this is a bludgeon attempt to prevent people from "fixing" the "Energy Sustainability Measures" so we won't be able to keep them disabled. If so.... well, I'm not going to put up with that....]

I don't see this "UserSettings.txt update" thingy. I have energy sustainability turned off (my gaming PC keeps my room warm, so this is a life saving measure in the winter) and the background FPS thing turned on (variable GPU rates keep the GPU nimble and exercised).

I_killed_Vivec · October 27

Clearly a bug - why would ZoS seek to force Frenchies into speaking English?

But it also seems stupid for the game to automatically update a file called UserSettings.txt... ever. There's a hint in the name, these are settings chosen by the user and so should only be reset by the user.

Also, imagine the stupidity... they've put things in there that you can change, but they don't want you to, so every time there's a loading screen they take the opportunity to reset your settings, making sure you haven't been naughty - and wasting everyone's time whether they have been "naughty" or not.

ZoS, manage your code properly. If you don't want things to be set by users then don't put them in user settings in the first place. Do not attempt to cover up for your original error by actively managing user preferences to make sure we don't do things that you allow but don't want us to do. Particularly when it causes a performance hit (even if we haven't made "unwanted" changes) and introduces all kinds of unintended consequences.

ZOS_Kevin · October 28

Hi all, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We are investigating this now. @FabresFour (or anyone who works on their own translation), can we get some additional information?

Is this something you have seen occur based on PTS testing? Can you describe how this issue was discovered?
Where are you seeing the change happen? Would be helpful for us incase we need to try and reproduce the issue.

GeneralEU · October 28

@ZOS_Kevin

In the first days of PTS, we noticed that after logging into a character, the game would automatically change the language from the "unsupported" (addon) to English. A few weeks ago, we noticed that even traveling from one zone to another was enough for the game to switch the language to English. Our conclusion is that the game is already changing the value of IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting from 1 to 0 on the login screen.

Here is a recording of what it looks like when changing locations:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ekG8r7rRnGwXG76nicRgRV9xHKDEnmwF/view

raffaeleg · October 28

Hello, Italian translation team here. I am afraid to say it, is not only a problem of the PTS server, but is happening with LIVE after the update of a few hours ago. It happens with all the unofficial translations. I tried with the followings:
- With game running, flagging UserSettings.txt as Read Only.
- Returning in game, traveling or entering somewhere to see a Loading Screen.
- UserSettings.txt is deleted and replaced each time, as confirmed by the creation date

I also noticed as soon I change the language, I saw four (4) Exclamation Marks (!) in top left corner

I will keep you up to date if I discover something more.

ZOS_Kevin · October 28

GeneralEU wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin

In the first days of PTS, we noticed that after logging into a character, the game would automatically change the language from the "unsupported" (addon) to English. A few weeks ago, we noticed that even traveling from one zone to another was enough for the game to switch the language to English. Our conclusion is that the game is already changing the value of IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting from 1 to 0 on the login screen.

Here is a recording of what it looks like when changing locations:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ekG8r7rRnGwXG76nicRgRV9xHKDEnmwF/view

Thanks for this. Passing it to the team to investigate.

GeneralEU · October 28

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

GeneralEU wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin

In the first days of PTS, we noticed that after logging into a character, the game would automatically change the language from the "unsupported" (addon) to English. A few weeks ago, we noticed that even traveling from one zone to another was enough for the game to switch the language to English. Our conclusion is that the game is already changing the value of IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting from 1 to 0 on the login screen.

Here is a recording of what it looks like when changing locations:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ekG8r7rRnGwXG76nicRgRV9xHKDEnmwF/view

Thanks for this. Passing it to the team to investigate.

Thanks! Please keep us updated in fixing this bug.

FabresFour · October 28

They've already explained what's going on better than I could. I'm glad. Thanks, everyone!

@ZOS_Kevin please, I hope you guys can make this a priority. Many people will lose access to the game in their native language, and a lot of them rely on unofficial translations to play. I really understand that other priorities come up during patch releases, but I'm genuinely concerned about the repercussions of this! Thanks for all the work!

FabresFour · November 4

any news?

@ZOS_Kevin

GeneralEU · November 11

@ZOS_Kevin

Problem partially fixed (no longer changes language when changing zone), but sets EN after game reset.

These values always change when the game is started:
SET IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting from 1 to 0
SET Language.2 from any custom lang to en

ZOS_Kevin · November 11

GeneralEU wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin

Problem partially fixed (no longer changes language when changing zone), but sets EN after game reset.

These values always change when the game is started:
SET IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting from 1 to 0
SET Language.2 from any custom lang to en

Thanks for the update here. Passing this along to the team.